Author's Note: This is a what-if story connected to 'Timeframe'. I suggest reading my story 'Timeframe' before reading this one.

Outside the school, students were chatting in their social groups, taking their time before the bell rang. The cheerleaders giggled amongst themselves while the jocks stood nearby. A few children sat on the steps, typing away at their computers while a select few actually went inside the building. No one noticed the two men leaning against a red and blue semi truck. A gray tinted camaro was parked right next to it, the sun shining on its form. To anyone, they were just two men, nothing special going on as they observed the building in front of them.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" one man asked, adjusting his grey jacket. He frowned as the bell for the school went off, the children heading in at the sound.

His companion looked at him, as if the question he had been asked was the most outlandish thing he had ever heard. "Of course," he said. "We have been searching for them for so long."

"Try to control yourself," the silver haired man muttered.

"You cannot tell me that you are not just as eager as I am, Megatron," the dark haired man said with a small grin.

"I am on an alien planet with fragile creatures and am stalking some children outside of a boring looking building where overpaid adults teach their students what they consider the basics of life," Megatron muttered. "Forgive me if I do not leap for joy." He was silent for a moment. "What if they do not remember?"

"They won't," Orion said simply. "Alpha Trion informed me that they will hold no memory of us, or what had happened."

Megatron frowned, looking at his brother. "Then why do you do this to yourself? If they will not remember you-"

"I need to see them," he interjected. "I need to know that...that they are alright." He still remembered the day he had sent them through the groundbridge for their own protection. He could see the look of peace on their small faces as they walked through, though the silent tears they shed was enough to tell everyone how much it hurt to be sent away. Yet, if they had not done anything, the sparklings would have most surely died.

Then, by Primus's blessed servo, they had managed to find them. The organic planet they had stumbled upon did not stand out to Orion right away, not at first. But when he had arrived, he had felt the small threads of the bond. He had contacted Ariel and Megatron immediately. He hadn't dared to hope, yet he followed the bond, followed it to a simple town in what the humans called Nevada.

The easy stuff was over with. Now began the hard part. Approaching three children who would not know who he was.

The sound of an engine approaching drew their attention to a dusted pink camaro. The car parked right next to the semi before the doors opened to reveal a young woman. Both men knew there had been no visible driver before. The woman pushed her long, blond hair out of her face as she approached them, her pink jacket matching her car.

"Pink," Megatron grumbled. "Of course."

"And hello to you too," she said pleasantly, standing next to Orion. She looked at the school, watching as a few late students ran in. "Did you see them?" she asked.

"Not yet," Orion said, wrapping his arm around the woman.

"Oh for Primus sakes!" Megatron exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "We have been doing this routine for the past two days. Lets just go in there and demand to see our sparklings!"

Orion frowned. "Our sparklings?" he repeated.

"They are mine just as much as yours and Ariel's," he grumbled. "I am not ashamed to admit it."

Ariel grinned. "We didn't say you were."

He glared. "Point being," he said. "We cannot just keep hiding in the shadows. Delaying the inevitable never does any good."

Orion and Ariel both frowned, knowing that he was right. Orion shifted, worry filling his spark. Ariel's holoform leaned into his, sending comforting waves through their spark bond. "Alright," he said. "Let's do it."

Raf let out a choked cry as he watched his computer fall to the ground. Tears filled his eyes but he blinked them away. He would not give Vince the satisfaction of seeing him cry. He prayed that the bully had not seen the tears forming in his eyes as he stared at his computer on the hard ground.

No such luck.

"You going to cry?" Vince sneered. "Go ahead. It already shows how pathetic you are."

"I'm not pathetic," Raf grumbled. Too late, did he realize, that speaking up was a mistake.

"Oh yeah?" Vince demanded, kicking at the computer at his feet. "You sure about that?"

"Knock it off Vince," a voice said.

Both boys looked up to see a raven haired teen standing nearby, his eyes narrowed. His hands were clenched at his sides as his backpack hung loosely from his shoulder. Vince scowled. "Back off Darby. Me and the wimp here are just having a little chat."

The boy, Jack, if Raf was remembering correctly, simply took out his phone and dialed a number, pressing the phone to his ear. Vince frowned. "What are you doing?"

"My mom has lunch with the principle, so I kind of know him. We're not close, but we're close enough that I have his number," Jack replied.

Vince narrowed his eyes. "You're bluffing."

Jack shrugged, pulling the phone away from his ear and pressing the 'speaker' button. They could all see the ID on the phone, and it was enough to make Vince step away from Raf. "I'll see you later," Vince growled to Raf before he scurried down the hall. Jack watched him go, shutting his phone and ending the call.

"Thanks," Raf mumbled, adjusting his glasses. He reached for his computer, but Jack beat him to it.

"It doesn't look damaged," Jack said, handing the computer over to Raf.

Raf nodded, though he doubted that was the case. He let out a breath as he gathered up his bag. He noticed that Jack was still standing nearby, shifting around awkwardly. "Do you really have the principles number?" Raf asked suddenly.

Jack looked surprised. "Er, no. Not really. I just put his name in my contacts and typed in my mom's number to make it look like I know him, just to scare away folks like Vince. You'd be surprised how often that trick doesn't work though."

Raf smiled slowly. "Then I'm grateful it worked just this once."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, me too." He was silent for a moment, and Raf could feel the awkwardness descend once again. "Want me to walk you to class?" he asked suddenly.

Raf blinked. "Uh, sure. Thanks."

It was not the first time Jack had given Raf any kind of attention. For an unknown reason, he seemed to have known his name despite the fact that Raf didn't even know him. Jack was a nice guy, but Raf had to wonder at his odd behaviour. He seemed uncertain in what he was doing. Raf was quiet, and he observed things around him and he knew that he was not the only kid in school who had caught Jack's attention.

"Thanks again," Raf said when he got to his history class.

Jack smiled. "No problem."

Miko watched with a frown when the Darby boy snuck into class. He was five minutes late, as he always was when it came to science, or any other class they were in. He took his usual seat right behind her. It never changed, even when that desk had been taken. She still remembered that first day when a girl had been sitting right behind her and Jack had entered the classroom, his eyes landing on her. He had walked over and politely asked the girl to move.

"You're in my seat," he had said simply.

The girl had muttered apologies as she gathered her stuff. Miko could hear Jack slide into the desk behind her, and she frowned before shrugging. So the kid wanted that particular desk. No big deal.

Until later on. Throughout the school year, she had noticed how Jack seemed to be eyeing her with a frown. It unnerved her to say the least. Not to mention he was always nearby, and why in the world did he stand out to her so much! It was aggravating!

"Look," she had said one time. "Keep it up and people are going to think you have a thing for me, alright? So just stop."

Jack had blinked at her in surprise. "What?"

"Stop doing...whatever it is you're doing," she said, struggling for words.

"What am I doing?"

"I don't know!" she exclaimed. "Just stop doing it!" Then she had turned and ran down the halls, eager to get to class and avoid the sudden shame that had filled her. It didn't help matters that this was the class she and Jack took together for chemistry. Or that they had been paired up together. Why was it that things like that always happened to her?

Things got even weirder when she found his number and name in her contacts one random day. And not just in her contacts. He was listed as one of her favorites. But it wasn't just him. A bunch of other people she didn't know were listed in her contacts. And who in the world was this 'Bulk' person listed as her contact?

She had stomped up to Jack, furious that day, waving her phone in his face. "How did you get to my phone?" she demanded. "How?"

He blinked, stepping back. "What?"

"Don't," she said. "I don't know why you're doing it, but stop. This is just creepy! So how did you get to my phone and what in the world was your reason for putting your number in it?"

His eyes widened. "Wait, you have my number?"

Her eyes narrowed. "You know that," she all but growled.

He held his left hand in surrender while he pulled out his phone with his right. "No, I didn't. But I have your number."

She frowned. "What?"

"See?" he said, showing her his contacts. Like hers, he had the same names listed in his favorites, her name and number included.

"How'd you get my number?" she demanded.

"I don't know!" he protested. "It just...showed up one day. Along with the others. I thought it was a prank or something."

"Some prank," she grumbled, stomping off. If it was a prank, than where was the punchline?

She had tried to delete the numbers, she really did. But whenever her finger would hover over the 'Erase' button, she would stop. She felt like she was about to cross a line of no return, and it was a line she did not want to cross.

So the numbers and names stayed.

Raf let out a sigh, pushing his glasses up as he found a spot to sit down on. The steps, while not the most comfortable, provided an easy getaway should...unwanted folks showed up. He opened up his computer, wincing at the large crack traveling down the screen. Anger bubbled inside him, along with the dreaded feeling of acceptance. It was going to happen anyway. Vince was just the kind of person, the kind of jerk, who would wreck something Raf valued so much.

Maybe he could head down to his special place near the road and play with his remote control car.

He was about to go through his routine, when he stopped and stared at the app that was meant for pictures on his computer. It said he had many pictures saved to his drive. But that was impossible, since the pictures he put on his computer were so few.

He let out a sigh. Did one of his brothers get to his computer again? He clicked on the app, preparing himself for the joke they had no doubt placed on his computer.

What he saw caused him to stare. There were pictures of him, with Jack and a girl he had seen around in class. But that wasn't what nearly made his heart stop. There, kneeling right beside Raf in the picture, was a giant, yellow robot. He was doing the oversized bunny ears in the picture and though he had no mouth, as it was blocked by some weird yellow thing, Raf could tell he was smiling.

Raf clicked on the next picture before he had even realized it.

In this picture, he was sitting on the yellow robots shoulder. They both looked surprised to see the camera pointed at them.

Raf's hands were trembling as he went to the next one, but this time, it was a video. He was pressing 'play' before even realizing what he was doing.

"You both are crazy!" a sudden voice exclaimed. It was Jack.

"No! I'm not kidding," the Raf in the video exclaimed. "Bee and I were going so fast it was amazing! I nearly lost control of the wheel!"

Jack in the video frowned. "Wait, you were driving?"

Raf looked at him with a frown. "Of course I was driving, it was my own video game anyway."

Jack sighed. "Video game, of course. Should have known Bumblebee wouldn't have let you drive on your own."

"You got that right," the yellow robot said and Raf was startled to find that he understood what the beeping was.

The Raf in the video frowned in confusion. "You didn't actually think I was speeding down the race track in real life, right?"

Jack then frowned, looking at the camera. "Miko, are you filming us?"

"I'm bored!" the voice taking the video moaned before the screen went black.

Bumblebee. That name...it was that name.

He quickly pulled out his phone and scrolled to his favorite contacts list, coming to the name 'Bumblebee.' His heart beat rather quickly as he stared at it. Why did he have these names, photos and pictures of people he did not know? Not to mention an actual giant robot! His brothers could never put that together. The amount of special effects it would take would be outrageous. Not to mention, he himself was in the video.

What was going on?

"What can I do for you sir?" Jack asked from the counter. He adjusted his hat that he was forced to wear for his work. He sighed, as long as the pay was decent, he could suffer.

"What would you recommend?" the customer asked.

Jack looked up, noting the silver hair and black jacket. It was the same routine everyday, with the same man at the same time. He always asked Jack what he recommended and always ordered the same way.

"Well," Jack said. "We do have our specials with the sweet potato fries as a side." He knew that was what the man would order, and he would take it to go, as always. Even now, Jack was already putting the order in.

"How's your day been so far?" the man asked. His eyes flickered around, as if uncertain, but it went unnoticed by Jack.

"It's been fine," he replied. "A bit weird, but fine."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How so?"

Jack shrugged. "Just some weird things popping up in my phone, like people's names and numbers that I don't recognize. And it's not just me. It's happened to a few other kids as well."

The man frowned. "These kids go to your school?"

"Yeah, but we're not...close or anything." He paused, looking at the order he typed in. "Would you like to take this to go sir?"

The man seemed deep in thought, staring at Jack as if he had not heard him. "Oh, yes. That would be nice."

"I think they know something," Megatron said, throwing his order away in the trash, just as before.

Ariel frowned. "Because they have some contacts they don't recognize on their phones?"

Megatron looked at her with a sly grin. "Soundwave did a bit of snooping around and I think you'll find his discoveries to be rather interesting."

"You like my vehicle," Orion stated.

The girl jumped, eyes wide as she looked at him, clutching her notepad close. She smiled. "Yeah, I think the flames are pretty cool."

He smiled. "Thank you. I think it suits my taste." He looked over at her notepad. "May I?"

She beamed. "Sure." She showed him the drawing of his truck, though unfinished, he could already tell the amount of careful detail she had put in. "I've been seeing a lot of cool vehicles around here, so I decided to take my chance and capture their coolness."

Orion smiled once more. She was just as confident as before. It brought a small bit of pain to his spark when she looked at him, not knowing who he was. "You are very talented," he said.

Her smile widened. "Thank you."

"Your fault we're-"

"-thinking Miko?"

"Don't make me hunt you down."

"Seize the glory! Optimus would."

"You're right Jack, I am afraid. Of losing you!"

"Mom, I'm sorry."

"T'o't!"

Overwhelming voices flew around his head, causing him to let out a gasp of pain. Images and sounds he should know flooded around him with such force he thought he might break. No one was around to hear him as he curled up in a corner in the bathroom. "Help," he whimpered, clutching his head.

The bathroom stall opened suddenly and someone knelt down next to him. "Shh," the woman crooned. "It's alright Lechnie. I've got you. Breath, just breath."

Jack did not even question why there was a woman in the boys bathroom. At this moment, her presence brought him a sense of peace. She made him feel comforted, safe. He knew her from somewhere, plain and simple.

When he awoke, he found himself in the nurse's office with no memory as to how he had gotten there.

"Start talking," Miko demanded, standing in front of him.

Raf shook his head timidly. Maybe coming to her was a bad idea. Though he knew Miko wouldn't hurt him, at least he hoped, that didn't stop the girl from being intimidating. "I don't know how it happened!"

"Hey, what's going on?" a voice demanded. Raf looked up to see Jack coming forward, eyeing Miko warily. He looked a bit pale, and his eyes were unfocused as he looked around, as if expecting to see someone.

"Raf here has pictures of us, and with a bunch of robots," Miko said, inclining her head to the smaller boy.

Jack's eyes widened, his gaze focused on her. "Wait-"

"Which is totally crazy," she said with a glare. "As he has no good reason to-"

"Miko-"

"-Stalking me or something-"

"I think that-"

"What is with you guys that makes me so...so-gah!"

"Miko!" Jack exclaimed. "I think I have the same pictures."

Miko stopped and stared at him. "Huh?"

He flipped open his phone, showing her and Raf. "I-I don't know how, but they just showed up! Not to mention I think we're being followed. This...this woman came to me and...I don't know. I felt something!"

Raf frowned. "Who's that red mech?"

Jack also frowned, squinting his eyes. "I don't know," he confessed. "Has anyone else gotten these glitches in their phones?"

Raf adjusted his glasses. "I don't think they're glitches, as our phones are still working. As for your question, I think we're the only ones."

"Have you tried contacting the numbers?" Jack asked.

Raf nodded. "I tried calling the 'Ratchet' number. But I only got a bunch of static."

It was then that he realized that Miko had stayed quiet for some time. "Miko?" he asked. "You alright?"

But she said nothing as she stared at her phone, the image of a red mech on the screen. "T'o't," she whispered. In that moment, they all looked at eachother, and Jack felt his heart beat faster for some unknown reason.

"We should just go up and talk to them," Megatron said.

"And do what?" Ariel asked.

"Something, anything," Megatron said. "It's better than stalking them."

To their surprise, Orion straightened up and just walked forward, in the direction where the children were sitting on the picnic benches.

"Is he-?" Megatron started.

"He is," Ariel answered, following her sparkmate. The children noticed them approaching and stopped what they were doing to stare.

Orion stopped suddenly, his spark pulsing rapidly. What was he going to say to them? How would they react? Maybe this was a bad idea after all. The children knew nothing about Cybertronians, so how would they react to him and his companions?

He felt Ariel gently nudge him, encouraging him on. He approached the picnic bench, taking in a deep breath. "Lechnie, Melchnie, Nelchie," he started, not knowing why he referred to them by their Cybertronian names. "I am-"

"T'o't," Jack said suddenly, his eyes wide, surprising Orion. He could hear Ariel and Megatron's sharp intakes of breath from behind him.

He blinked. "Do you…"

"No," Jack said. "But I have a vague idea. But I don't know what it means." He let out a trembling breath. "I don't know what's going on." He then looked at Ariel, frowning as something flashed through his face. "Wait, did you just call me 'Lechnie'?"

Orion smiled softly. He gestured to the seat and Raf scooted over, making room for him. Megatron and Ariel sat across from him, next to Miko who was staring at them with open curiosity.

Orion looked at them, barely containing his wonder and anticipation. "We know you, don't we?" Raf asked suddenly.

Orion smiled. "More than you realize."